Just got my copy of 2 ed and myself and all my players are loving it. I have a 1-1 Campaign with my daughter and a group campaign with some friends and everyone loves it. I am allready picking out what LT packs and expansions to get, as well as tooling around on the quest builder. But one thing bothers me. what carries over from campaign to campaign. it would stand to reason that if you use a new hero from an expansion that he would start fresh as he was just introduced, but what if someone really likes avric and has nice gear for him, what if they have a relic, what for example would transfre from the shadowrune adventure to the trollfens for example. any set rules? any suggestions? seems a shame to make them get rid of everything they worked for just becasue i am opening a new book of maps, but would this cause unbalance. what about the OL? spent XP and relics remain or not? any insight would be appreciated.

Nothing is kept from campaign to campaign.

It would be as much a "shame" to keep stuck with the same heroes and gear for ever.

Campaigns are not designed for having over equipped heroes (i.e. with even more gear and abilities as at the end of a full campaign).

It wouldn't make sense for the heroes or overlord to carry over into the next campaign. Usually the finale is played for keeps. I don't want to spoil anything, but if the heroes or overlord lose, it's assumed they die or worse. Also, the overlord is a different lieutenant character from campaign to campaign. In Labyrinth of Ruin the overlord is Ariad. In the upcoming Shadows expansion the overlord will be Mirklace.

I think 9 quests are enough to have fun with a particular hero before moving on. Maybe someday FFG will release a short "Advanced" quest expansion for heroes that have just completed a campaign. One for each big expansion that will forshadow the coming events, explain why the winning heroes or overlord aren't participating, and maybe give a little bonus to the winning side during the introductory quest of the new campaign.

Starting fresh with the heroes is also fun in itself, you have no uber abilities and weapons and it feels like you are really fighting against the odds on some quests. On the flip side, if you could have your abilities, or even just the weapons you would walk through the campaign easily and it would not be anywhere near as fun.

Its easy to get attached to the heroes and their gear, but by the end of the campaign its really time to let go and start anew.

My buddies and I were thinking of this, as well. We're all in the tabletop RPG mindset so after seeing the expansions the thought was continuing characters. It became a con until we figured out it was a strategy game and not an RPG. As the type of game this is, it works well. Grab a character and play through a series of quests to the end boss for that specific campaign.

I'd like to see more character progression but I don't see how it would fit into the game the way it is. If I would have known this, I wouldn't have bought it, but I'm glad I did since it was a nice surprise that, though it wasn't what I was looking for, it is still a fun game to play.

On the other hand, no one will shoot you if u choose to play another campain with the same upgraded heroes. Ofc the Overloord should keep his XP as well!

On the other hand, no one will shoot you if u choose to play another campain with the same upgraded heroes. Ofc the Overloord should keep his XP as well!

It's true that no one will shoot you, but that's not the primary reason people have been discouraging the idea around here.

The reason people think it's a bad idea is because a bunch of heroes with top-level skills and Act II gear will cakewalk their way through the second campaign.

The way it usually works is this:

1) heroes begin with starting gear and skills, which makes the first quest or two a struggle.

2) heroes get some Act I gear and buy a couple skills, and now they can hold their own in Act I.

3) by the Interlude, the heroes have enough stuff to kick ass against Act I monsters.

4) start of Act II, monsters jump up in strength and heroes again struggle a bit.

5) heroes starting buying Act II gear and the higher level skills and are able to fight back.

6) By the finale, the heroes have a reasonable amount of kit and can fight well against Act II monsters.

Now imagine you take the heroes from the end of that campaign and plug them into the Act I quests of a different campaign. They will kick ass and take names easily. Even if you swap in Act II monsters, the challenge level will only be "fair to moderate" and will only get easier as the heroes fill in the few missing skills they weren't able to buy before the first campaign ended.

If you also swap in Act II gear, then the heroes will buy up anything they still need quickly. By the time you get to Act II of the second campaign, the heroes will have nothing left to spend their gold and XP on. They'll be able to tackle most quests with ease, unless the quest-specific rules strongly favour the OL.

The OL keeping his XP and purchased cards is great and all, but that only does so much. OL cards alone are not the full breadth of the OL's ability to challenge the heroes, and everything that's not OL cards is going to take a hit when starting a new campaign.

If your only interest is reading the story out loud to your friends, this is fine. If the Overlord player wants to actually have a fighting chance, however, it's not going to work out well. Likewise, if the heroes players actually enjoy a challenge, instead of hours of mindless dice rolling, it probably won't be so fun for them either.

No one here is disputing that you can play the game however you want. You can, by all means. All we're saying is that the game mechanics as-is don't really allow for it, assuming you want a balanced and reasonably challenging experience.

You can come up with house rules to address this is if you want, Godspeed. I expect you'll need a lot of them.

Yeah Ill totaly agree with you.

Just saying it's no harm doing it.

Most players will experience what you just said and would most likley

stop playing and start over with new heroes.